Camp urges kids to get outside

Kids spend twice as much time indoors as their parents did at the same age.

Computers, television and video games have driven a generation indoors, and Molly Disabb, a University of Florida program coordinator, hopes to change that.

“Camp Kids in the Woods,” an initiative of the UF/IFAS School of Forest Resources and Conservation and the USDA Forest Service, will venture into Austin Cary Forest with the goal of getting kids out of the house.

The camp is split into two sessions, the first from June 10-14 and the second from June 24-28.

Disabb, the camp director, began to organize the camp in 2017 and gathered University of Florida professors, students and other professionals in the area to help rising sixth-grade students to rising 10th-grade students have fun outside and learn about nature.

“We do a ton of different activities to raise their environmental literacy while also having a good time,” Disabb said. “The main goal, though, is that we want them to be comfortable and happy being outside.”

Camp activities include things like handling animals, deer population surveys and tree identification. Kids also participate in a wide variety of environmental studies like wetland sampling and water-quality measuring at springs in the forest.

The kids are supervised by camp counselors like Disabb, as well as experts in the fields the events explore.

“We kind of sneak that education in there,” she said. “It’s a lot of hands-on activities. They are having fun during all of it, but we definitely teach them a lot. We want them to learn more about their world.”

One of those experts, Chase Pirtle, an animal care specialist at Ashton Biological Preserve who will help oversee the animal-handling activities, said he is excited to get kids outside and enjoying nature.

“It’s going to be incredibly fun for the kids,” Pirtle said. “We’ve come so far from the natural world, so it’s like bringing them into a whole other world. You can see on the kids’ faces when you’re showing them the animals that they really enjoy it. It’s a unique and fun experience for them.”

Disabb noted that the camp has grown since its inaugural sessions in 2018, increasing the number of partial scholarships offered to kids from two to eight in 2019, providing a shuttle service and increasing its openings to 20 per session.

“Camp Kids in the Woods” branched off from its school-year program that began in 2013 that works with students from Westwood Middle School, Littlewood Elementary and Stephen Foster Elementary School and takes them outside their science classes to do field research. Camp counselor Andrea Ceeley said the sudden growth of the camp in just one year is thrilling.

“Going into the first year last year was obviously scary,” Ceeley said. “But we got such good feedback from all the campers last year that I think it was a really positive experience for everyone involved. I’m really excited to see that we’re growing into the boots that we created for ourselves.”

The application deadline for remaining scholarships is May 20 for Session 1 and June 3 for Session 2.

“We have pretty good camps in Gainesville, but this camp is a pretty unique experience,” Ceeley said. “I wish I had gone to a camp like this when I was younger.”